Wrestling Thread

American Dragon

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WWE potentially looking at doing even less traveling by having at least Raw and Smackdown being produced from the same venue each week.

I get the cost savings behind this and it can save a ton of money, but this means WWE will slash the number of places they visit while also greatly increasing the chances of burning out the areas they do book.

Where Smackdown ran this past Friday? Chances of WWE ever going back there under this model would be slim to none. They couldn't even put 8K in the building for one taping, what are they going to do for 2 or more?

IF an area only ever gets a house show? Yeah zero chance WWE will ever go back there if they switch to this. Their house shows are averaging just a tad bit under 5K this year. These places that only get house shows are barely even drawing enough to justify one house show, much less anything else.

Mark Shapiro recently appeared on Financial Talk radio, where he explained how today's WWE business model is very different from what it was years ago.

Shapiro said WWE no longer sees much value in running traditional non-televised live events in different towns every week if they aren't generating a meaningful return. Without television rights, sponsorship revenue or premium content attached to those shows, the cost of travelling, transporting equipment, setting up arenas and increasing the risk of talent injuries often outweighs the financial benefit.

He also spoke about the logistics involved in taking separate Raw and SmackDown productions across the country every week. Moving production crews, staging, lighting and equipment from city to city is expensive and time-consuming.

Instead, Shapiro suggested WWE could eventually move towards a model where television is produced from the same venue multiple times each week, allowing fans to attend while significantly reducing operating costs. He admitted the idea hasn't been approved, but said it's something he's genuinely passionate about and hopes to see become a reality in the future.
 
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GeraldV

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Guess the ppv wasn’t great bc only dragon posting wwe stuff 12 hours after it ended.
I went to bed before the last three matches.

I'm going to have to rewatch because I was having terrible eye issues last night. Long story, but I was barely able to see anything happening, so I'm not able to give an honest take.

It didn't seem anything earthshattering happened while I was watching though.,
 

Laparkafan

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I went to bed before the last three matches.

I'm going to have to rewatch because I was having terrible eye issues last night. Long story, but I was barely able to see anything happening, so I'm not able to give an honest take.

It didn't seem anything earthshattering happened while I was watching though.,
Ya there was only one thing that really surprised me
 
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American Dragon

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Eh it was an okay show. Every match had the result I expected. Only surprising thing was some of what happened after the main event. Didn’t really produce anything particularly buzzworthy by AEW standards. Basically your standard AEW B level PPV.

If I were using the Andreas Hale scale it would be a C grade for AEW, which would be basically a B or better for any other company.
 
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GeraldV

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Eh it was an okay show. Every match had the result I expected. Only surprising thing was some of what happened after the main event. Didn’t really produce anything particularly buzzworthy by AEW standards. Basically your standard AEW B level PPV.

If I were using the Andreas Hale scale it would be a C grade for AEW, which would be basically a B or better for any other company.
Yeah, like I said here last week, I wasn't very enthused about this PPV.
 

CrimeDawg18

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Didn't see Redemption but appears to have been a decent (by AEW standards) with some questionable booking decisions.
Not a fan of Thekla losing and the double chain match was apparently not good.
I think they ended up with 7,000 people in a 21,000 seat arena and from the clips I saw the crowd wasn't into it that much.

They already have Santana doing a promo about his new name.

 
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American Dragon

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Last I checked regarding the show war in Chi-town, AAA was outselling All Out.
It’s a WWE/AAA/NXT branded show, not just AAA

I’ll be shocked if All Out isn’t a true sellout though. WrestleTix says the total # of seats is 9.5K and AEW is already at 5.5K two months out. I thought the NOW Arena was bigger than that. Looks like they may have gone too small for this one, though I’m not sure what options are available in the area other than where Worlds Collide is running and then the United Center or whatever the Bulls arena is called.
 

American Dragon

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Didn't see Redemption but appears to have been a decent (by AEW standards) with some questionable booking decisions.
Not a fan of Thekla losing and the double chain match was apparently not good.
I think they ended up with 7,000 people in a 21,000 seat arena and from the clips I saw the crowd wasn't into it that much.

They already have Santana doing a promo about his new name.


I don’t see what could be considered a questionable booking decision. All the right people won.

The crowd was indeed trash like has been the case for the last several Canadian shows. Seemed like they didn’t really care much about wrestling. I don’t know why someone like that would even consider buying an AEW ticket. Just seems like a waste of money. Would be like me not liking ****** mainstream rock music then buying a Nickelback ticket.

Giving Santana a new name is just weird. No explanation thus far when he has already been on NXT TV under the name Mike Santana. And they called him Mike Santana on some social posts this week.
 

American Dragon

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Yeah, like I said here last week, I wasn't very enthused about this PPV.
Yep it was mostly good to great wrestling, other than the chain match and the TBS title matches, but with predictable results. But nothing really standout beyond the in-ring.

I wonder how much shuffling of the card had to take place with MJF sitting out this PPV cycle with his injury. I know many were mad, especially people who bought tickets, that Kenny vs. MJF didn’t happen as planned. But AEW never announced that as the plan to begin with. Maybe don’t base your purchasing decisions based on what sort sheets are saying 🤷‍♂️
 

American Dragon

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That's a great entry into the 'Guess if it's a WWE superstar or porn star' game
Sometimes I wonder with the women if they go to Pornhub and pick some obscure names from there. But they screwed up recently.

One of them just had to change their WWE name again because she was named Kylee Quinn. If you type that name into Google it will auto suggest numerous things for Kylie Quinn and prompt you if you meant Kylie Quinn, who let’s just say has quite a lot of experience banging on camera.
 

GeraldV

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Sometimes I wonder with the women if they go to Pornhub and pick some obscure names from there. But they screwed up recently.

One of them just had to change their WWE name again because she was named Kylee Quinn. If you type that name into Google it will auto suggest numerous things for Kylie Quinn and prompt you if you meant Kylie Quinn, who let’s just say has quite a lot of experience banging on camera.
Sounds like a topic I need to investigate.
 

GeraldV

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I loved the ladder match. That’s my type of jam. I can see people who aren’t that into aew not liking it at all however.

Bandito shouldn’t have beaten Fletcher, but they are going to have to have him go over a big AEW singles person or he’s just going to be a regular mid card guy who puts on great matches. Fletcher is amazing, though.
 
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American Dragon

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I loved the ladder match. That’s my type of jam. I can see people who aren’t that into aew not liking it at all however.

Bandito shouldn’t have beaten Fletcher, but they are going to have to have him go over a big AEW singles person or he’s just going to be a regular mid card guy who puts on great matches. Fletcher is amazing, though.
The ladder match was good. Them just hanging up a cheap clipboard from Walmart with a fake match contract was lame though. Like they couldn’t hit up a stationary store in Montreal and get something just a little nicer?
 
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American Dragon

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This is the same Ryan Garcia who has repeatedly been filmed himself saying the N word, that he hates them, that he hates Muslims, and aligned himself with the Ku Klux Klan.

The WBC expelled this guy for being a bigot

This is a new low for WWE.

 

American Dragon

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Just saw a clip of that Danhausen/Hendry concert because I thought it couldn't possibly be as bad as people were saying it was because everyone is always over reactionary, and let's just say never should I ever be put in a position where I can say with a straight face that the only good part of something is when a self-avowed KKK lover got involved to end it.
 

MegaBlue05

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This is the same Ryan Garcia who has repeatedly been filmed himself saying the N word, that he hates them, that he hates Muslims, and aligned himself with the Ku Klux Klan.

The WBC expelled this guy for being a bigot

This is a new low for WWE.


Yeah. This is gross.

I tried to watch Raw for the first time since April last night in an effort to get caught up ahead of SummerSlam.

Saw CTE Garcia in the first 10 minutes. The show moved at a snail’s pace with at least 4 ad breaks in the first 35 minutes. I got board and turned it off after 40 minutes

Read results this morning. Only missed one of the worst female workers on that roster winning a belt from a green horn botch machine, a gaga “concert,” and the same ole, same ole.
 

CrimeDawg18

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TNA had another of those "Final Deletion" matches between the Hardy's and the Righteous last week. Those always do good ratings.

Show definitely seems to be much better since Dreamer is gone.
 

American Dragon

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TNA had another of those "Final Deletion" matches between the Hardy's and the Righteous last week. Those always do good ratings.

Show definitely seems to be much better since Dreamer is gone.
Yep those are normally good. The one they did in AEW was one of the very few things I can say I fondly remember off the top of my head from the Hardys in AEW.
 

American Dragon

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Yeah. This is gross.

I tried to watch Raw for the first time since April last night in an effort to get caught up ahead of SummerSlam.

Saw CTE Garcia in the first 10 minutes. The show moved at a snail’s pace with at least 4 ad breaks in the first 35 minutes. I got board and turned it off after 40 minutes

Read results this morning. Only missed one of the worst female workers on that roster winning a belt from a green horn botch machine, a gaga “concert,” and the same ole, same ole.
It’s terrorism.
 

GeraldV

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Both the maya World match and The chain match fell short for me.

The Dogs are about the least charismatic tag team I have seen in a minute. They may have been great overseas, but man, they’ve not shown a bit of personality over heee IMHO.

Ciampa and Jericho was insane. Of course I liked it, but again, I can see some people not caring for it. Those two guys are crazy men.